A Retiree Digitizes 27 Million Old Newspaper Pages in His Living Room (and Libraries Fight to Catch Up)
Jim Epstein|May. 18, 2014 1:00 pm
Last March, I profiled Tom Tryniski, an eccentric retiree who has digitized (so far) about 27 million newspaper pages working alone in his living room and has made them free for anyone to search. (Click above to watch the video or click here to read the article.) The story offered an example of Tryniski’s prowess: In 2003, the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL)spent $400,000 digitizing the first 62 years of theBrooklyn Daily Eagle, which was among the most widely read and influential papers in 19th century America. A decade later, the library was still raising money to finish the remaining 52 years of the Daily Eagle’s run. In the meantime, Tryniski digitized all 115 years of the paper in about five months working alone.
The BPL has caught up. The entire run of the paper is now digitized and the library just launched a beautiful new portal that makes it easy to search. The BPL Daily Eagle site is far more limited than Tryniski’s—he’s digitized 639 newspapers including several other Brooklyn titles—but it’s quite a bit faster and easier to use.
So how much did the BPL pay to finish the job? Absolutely nothing.
https://reason.com/blog/2014/05/18/a-retiree-digitizes-27-million-old-newsp
